I think I did use pdisk under mfslive. I know I tried it under one of the Linux tool sets. Mfslive could see my flash drive which was plugged into the adjacent usb port but it showed it under /media instead of /dev.

I could probably try the usb ports on the back and see if it makes a difference. I may be able to find an old XP/IDE PC at work....

The SATA conversion might work although I would have to disassemble the disk cage on my PC to put in the drive. PIA!

Also been meaning to see if it makes a difference using a Series 2 drive.

mfslive has always used the first vacant letter for me (e.g. third drive is sdc), but I've never booted in byteswap mode. perhaps that has something to do with it. either way, it seems not to matter since you've found a way around it.

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mfslive has always used the first vacant letter for me (e.g. third drive is sdc), but I've never booted in byteswap mode. perhaps that has something to do with it. either way, it seems not to matter since you've found a way around it.

You need to take into account that my keybord and mouse are both usb(sdc and dd). This is an HP PC so it also has two usb slots for camera memory cards(sde and sdf). That means the first additional item is sdg.

Even though I now have access to the TiVo drive, byteswapping is something I'm concerned about. The utilities usually make a point of saying only hdc and hdd qualify for byteswapping.

If you can mount the file systems on a S1 TiVo drive then you have byteswapping enabled. If you don't, I believe you would be OK with backup/restore utilities, but I'm not sure about replacing the kernel.

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If your Series 2 DirecTivo is connected to a phone line and successfully making calls, but you're still not getting the v6.4a update, then please post back with your Tivo Model Number and Tivo Service number. I'll pass that information along to our DirecTV contacts to provide to Tivo for further troubleshooting.

If you can mount the file systems on a S1 TiVo drive then you have byteswapping enabled. If you don't, I believe you would be OK with backup/restore utilities, but I'm not sure about replacing the kernel.

I can't mount the file systems. I've tried every Linux distro I have access to and the MFSLive CDs are the only ones that recognize the drive properly. Even Knoppix 7.0 doesn't even acknowledge that the drive is there.

The mfslive boot process only allows option numbers and then the cfg file tells it what kernel parameters to pass so I have no way to specify bswap.

I DO have access to an IDE PC at work so I may just do that unless anyone has other ideas?

Disclaimer: This is a reach beyond my actual first hand experience, and the following information may in fact be absolutely wrong.

You can pass custom boot parameters to the mfslive bootcd. You can accomplish the same as boot option #2 by entering the following at the boot prompt:
bzImage append ide=nodma hdc=bswap hdd=bswap initrd=initramfs.gz vga=788

You can adjust the parameters as you see fit to turn on byteswapping on additional device nodes. I do not know if it is possible to byteswap a /dev/sd node, but if it's possible to do so in the same way, this would likely be what turns it on.

I don't remember, but I think the ide=nodma parameter is necessary because the driver cannot simultaneously do dma and byteswapping.

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Disclaimer: This is a reach beyond my actual first hand experience, and the following information may in fact be absolutely wrong.

You can pass custom boot parameters to the mfslive bootcd. You can accomplish the same as boot option #2 by entering the following at the boot prompt:
bzImage append ide=nodma hdc=bswap hdd=bswap initrd=initramfs.gz vga=788

You can adjust the parameters as you see fit to turn on byteswapping on additional device nodes. I do not know if it is possible to byteswap a /dev/sd node, but if it's possible to do so in the same way, this would likely be what turns it on.

I don't remember, but I think the ide=nodma parameter is necessary because the driver cannot simultaneously do dma and byteswapping.

I'm pretty sure I tried that aready. Because of the cfg file it only accepts 1, 2, 3, or 4. I believe you are correct about the nodma & bswap being mutually exclusive.

I don't have a byteswapped drive to test with, but I was able to boot the cd (1.4) using those parameters on the command line.

I know it was booting from the parameters I put on the command line, and not from the config file, because the first time I forgot to include the initrd=initramfs.gz and the boot process ended in a kernel panic due to there being no root fs to mount.

DMA and bswap are mutually exclusive NOdma & bswap go together, but I think that's what you meant.

FWIW, you mentioned having access to an IDE PC at work...that is probably the safest course. I have no idea whether byteswapping is even possible on an interface other than IDE.

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I don't have a byteswapped drive to test with, but I was able to boot the cd (1.4) using those parameters on the command line.

I know it was booting from the parameters I put on the command line, and not from the config file, because the first time I forgot to include the initrd=initramfs.gz and the boot process ended in a kernel panic due to there being no root fs to mount.

DMA and bswap are mutually exclusive NOdma & bswap go together, but I think that's what you meant.

FWIW, you mentioned having access to an IDE PC at work...that is probably the safest course. I have no idea whether byteswapping is even possible on an interface other than IDE.

I finally figured out the initrd was missing as well. I was testing with 1.3b after what you said earlier. The boot succeeds now and pdisk shows the partitions but I can't mount any of them. Just says mount failed. No other explanation.

I would say bswap must be handled in the ide driver, and since you're hooking up via usb, it's a different driver, but I have no facts to support that statement, it's purely a wild a$$ guess.

I wouldn't be surprised. Think it's time to use the machine at work although that's a PIA being separated from the TiVo, unless I just take it home over a weekend. Also might need to see about getting one of my old IDE computers fixed just so I'll have one available.

a good number of pci ide cards get recognized as /dev/hd(e,f,g,h) by most of these boot cd's. If you've got one of those laying around, that's another way (I've got an old promise UATA 100 card I refuse to part with for just that reason).

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Ronsch, do you have the image? I don't have 3.5d, and for some reason, no matter how many times I try to force an upgrade, it never wants to download.

I'd be grateful if anyone could post/send me a copy too.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard reports of anyone with a Hughes GXCEBOT or Sony SAT-T60 getting 3.5d via a donated image or by manually installing slices. I was able to manually install the 3.5d software on my DSR6000 since I already had the slices on board though (link). If you have access to the bash prompt on your T60 you might be able to do the same if you have the 3.5d software sitting in the MFS database.

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I'm not sure if extracting the slices from MFS to use elsewhere is even possible. I believe the typical method is to catch the slice files sitting on a regular file system before they are loaded into MFS and deleted. And it stands to reason that if someone had 3.5d T60 slices to share, they would also have a 3.5d T60 backup image to share.

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Well the issue is that I'd like to keep the shows on my older version. Wouldn't I be stuck creating a new drive with a backup image, and losing all of my old shows?

Yes, the only way to save your shows would be to do a slice upgrade, although having the 3.5d slices also seems to be hit or miss. One of my DSR6000s running 3.5c that has been subbed for several years but never phoned in had the 3.5d slices. Another that I took a look at for someone else was running 3.1.0 even though it was unhacked and had been in use for years. They didn't even have the DST fix from a few years ago.

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